Gig review: The Fiery Furnaces

Published on Sunday 11 October 2009 22:24

NICE 'N' SLEAZY, GLASGOW ***

WHILE she is better known as Alex Kapranos's girlfriend, Eleanor Friedberger also happens to be one half of brother-sister outfit, The Fiery Furnaces. Alongside sibling Matthew, musically the New Yorkers are about as conventional as a couple of square eggs. Melodies fly off on tangents, styles can switch from jazz to funk within the space of a bar, while tempos often speed up and slow down depending on their mood.

It's tight and impressive, sure, but ultimately frustrating to listen to. As soon as you've locked into one of their punchy grooves, they're off on another genre-hopping escapade.

Eleanor prowls the stage with a mixture of sex and menace. As a choir singer in a Greek orthodox church, her clear vocals make following her songs' narrative easy, even if the messages are slightly shrouded in mystery. Smothered by Matthew's incessant noodling, her between-song banter, however (something about a taxi driver who used to be a roadie?), was completely lost on the audience.

"We don't do encores anymore, we just keep playing," she mused, as one false ending led to another. Such a stop-start approach gets a bit wearing after a while, but it's this very concept that The Fiery Furnaces' fans find so compelling. Songs aren't meant to flow, and neither is the onstage routine.